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Cats are known having nine lives but this tabby has shown it has more than the usual allocation of digits.A rare condition left the ginger tabby with oversized paws and half a dozen more toes than your average feline.
The ginger tabby spent a year looking after herself on the Upper West Side in New York before she was adopted by Shirley Belwood.
Shirley couldn’t face leaving her behind when she emigrated to Wimborne, Dorset, around ten years ago.
And now a grand 19 years old, Natasha has become one of life’s survivors thanks in part to her super-sized feet which stand out from her average body.
Natasha has seven toes on both front paws – two more than normal – and five on her hind legs instead of four.
Her owner, Shirley Belwood spoke of her adopted pet:’I heard her crying for ages outside my apartment window, and I just had to find her.
‘She’s got a lot of attitude and she’s quite the character but we’re so close.
‘She doesn’t do as much these days as she has diabetes, but she’s still so frisky and cranky – a typical New Yorker.
‘The nurses at the vets say she ‘swears a lot’ at them whenever she goes. That just shows what she’s like.’
The world record for the cat with the most toes is currently held by a Canadian cat named Tiger who has an impressive 27.
Some polydactyl cats have problems with joint growth, the forming of legs and nail beds and extra thick claws fusing together.
They are sometimes referred to as ‘Hemingway cats’ because author Ernest Hemingway became a famous fan of them after being given a six-toed cat by a ship’s captain.
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